Many people living in one day at a time recovery understand living a good life is an exercise of practicing reasonable reality. Living reasonable reality forces us to believe in the benefits of one day at a time humility while seeking the benefits of one day at a time growth. We find growing in leaps and bounds might be too fast for us but in all reality, when it does happen, we hold on and navigate this reality keeping ourselves connected with our supports to keep us from becoming vain, aloof, and unrealistic with little regard for our search for reasonable reality. It becomes all about us. To live in recovery we need to be grounded, and while being grounded, we appreciated the joys and the safety found in our inextricable connection to those we are akin with. This gifted togetherness is born from grace, and in as such reasonable reality is a welcomed benefit founded in our relationships with others. In time we understand that living a good life is an exercise of practicing reasonable reality. One day at a time recovery shows us this. Peace.
Many of us who live in one day at a time recovery know what real reality is all about. We know that in real reality remaining abstinent from our addictions offers us the opportunity to live peaceful lives regardless of the periods of stress that life offers all people. Someone told us that this too shall pass. And it does. What many of us discover is we need to participate in self-care. Probably coffee becomes decaf and extra activity ceases. We try and find ways to share the load. Perhaps we need to talk to a professional. We enjoy calm settings. We deal with our responsibilities in small steps. We rest and we relax. And it is important that we accept help. As was said before the real reality is stress passes. Reach out. Peace.
Many of us living in one day at a time recovery understand when we are practicing being resilient in today we are creating hope for tomorrow. When we are living as resilient people there is a determination growing within us that brings a familiar strength that pushes us to keep going, and keep growing, in order that we can face adversity, while being capable of remaining abstinent one day at a time, today. This is the reality of hope which we lived yesterday, live today, and will live tomorrow. Our experience teaches us that life is a doable and inviting place to be when we practice becoming resilient while living in today. Resilience and hope happen before we even know it. They are gifts. Peace.
Many of us who have been living in one day at a time recovery for a fair amount of time eventually realize that we still have much to learn. With consequence, both of ours and of others’, becoming our mentor, we eventually learn the realities of our short comings and the realities of change. In as such we understand that laughter is better than tears but at times, tears are better than laughter. What is happening to us is we are developing situational awareness. This too is a great teacher. It’s called empathy. We have much to learn, don’t we? Peace.
Those of us who are living in one day at a time recovery know the reality of wanting to be living in a perfect world. Living in a perfect world would be easy, and that sense of ease we sought to be living in brought us to the beginning of addiction as we tried to escape from from the difficult, the painful, and the unfairness of life. What we discover is the escape into the perfect world would not last because we would want, obsessively want and indefinitely need the reassurance and the reaffirming of perfect non-realities to take us out of the perfection of the perfect world and grant us with the touches of adversities and pain to let us know that there is such a thing as perfection but we would not be happy because while always in it we simply cannot see or experience it. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery are soon to understand that our journeys are the search for humble elevation to dry land after the dam had broke. We are not seeking to become spiritually superior to any person, people or peoples and we definitely do not find dry land by any means other than the grace and compassion from others. Grace and compassion are the reality and the joy of one day at a time recovery. In absolute reality our reality might just overwhelm us with the gratitude of rescued people. Our desperation is a gift. Peace.
Many people living life one day at a time often learn the reality of human growth in retrospect according to our age and our time in recovery. This is not a put-down on those who are younger or those who are fairly new to one day at a time recovery. It is the reality of limited experience and the knowledge that life is grace, life is love, and life will always have its limitations. If we cannot accept this, life becomes a terribly egocentric tailspin in which we believe we live in recovery because of our own accord. We don’t understand that grace, love, and acceptance are a God thing, and that God, the spirit or the universe are in all reality the other. Reality sets in and in retrospect we understand we are all vessels who have found safe harbor from the storms of our innocence. Peace.
Many of us who live life one day at a time find ourselves being quite reluctant to making the changes we need to live in sustainable recovery. The first actuality of living in recovery is to live abstinent from active addiction. This is a change most of us cannot do on our own. An absolute truth is that we cannot sustain living in recovery unless we have a solid foundation on recovery, and very often we need to find such a foundation in hospitals, detox centers, treatment facilities, other avenues of professional help, and 12 step programs. Our reluctance to accept help from others has to go. We need to understand that our best thinking brought us to where we were which was needing help to save our lives. When we accept this, and surrender to the reality that addiction had kicked the hell out of us, we can be helped. We are now understanding the humility that the gift of desperation was giving us. The change was happening ever so slightly one day at a time. Peace.
Many people living in long-time one day at a time recovery understand that memories of past early recovery is full of sentimental misgivings. Early recovery becomes a grand, grand time in the minds of old-timers but in truth it induces feelings of melancholic loneliness. Upon reality checking we will discover that early recovery was not so grand and that we had to face a lot of adversity. We will also see that we had lost much to the passing of time. People died, we lost contact with others, our health began to fail, and many people lost the freedom that one day at a time abstinence gave them. In reality we today, living in recovery today, become grateful, grateful recovering people because of time. It’s a glorious sadness many people don’t get to see. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery hit their bottom and come out of it relatively unscathed. The pain, the fear, and the consequences we experienced while on our way to hitting bottom was part of the really real. The upside of hitting our bottom was that we had only one way to go and that was up. We found one day at a time recovery. When we say that we come out of our bottoms relatively unscathed what we really mean is we have learned from our suffering and we will learn to suffer well. Neither is life, or recovery, always a bowl of cherries but if we remain abstinent we are always living in freedom from active addiction. This is the hope we thought we had once lost, and in this hope we discover the reality of gratitude and wellness. Peace.